


Q Origins - Netflix series (Plot summary)

by Psychopersonified



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: M/M, Plot Summary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychopersonified/pseuds/Psychopersonified
Summary: An imaginary Q-centric Netflix series that explores his early years right up to and past the events in Skyfall. I will borrow heavily from Spectre, but in this universe that movie didn't happen.I've written it in the form of a plot summary and not necessarily a full fic with dialogue, but I do get more descriptive in the important parts. And yes there is a lot of plot as I try to weave Q's story and timelines into the events of the movies as much as I could in hopes of taking you on a journey through ups and downs and suspense - just like a Netflix series would.
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47





	1. Series 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a 00Q shipper and I'm hoping this imaginary series will end up in that direction. But for now, its mostly Q-centric.
> 
> ———  
> The writing is not polished or Brit-picked. 
> 
> To make Q’s backstory come to life and the events that happen to and around him seem more realistic, I’ve tried to include as much relevant details including the bureaucracy, politics and technology in MI6 (with a lot of artistic licence). The details all play a role in growing plot and telling of the narrative, I promise.

We start in his University days. He gets involved in grey hat hacking with a group of friends for shits and giggles. Then a proud Q finds an exploit that people would pay handsomely for. They initially discuss selling the zero day exploit but Q has second thoughts after the elderly couple next door (who dotes on the lonely too youngQ like surrogate grandparents) fails to get treatment when their public health system gets ransomwared, leaving one of them severely ill. Q hacks into the system to try and crack the ransomware and finds that it contains his signature exploit code. One of his friends has gone ahead and started using the exploit without his knowledge.

Things get tense when he confronts them. The ringleader bully and threaten him to back off. He removes the ransomware anyway, but it’s too late - one of his surrogate grandparents die, leaving the other half extremely distraught. Q is devastated with the knowledge that he helped cause this - sees that there are irrevocable, tangible consequences to his work. Realises for the first time how his genius might be a force for good (protect) or evil (disrupt) - self awakening moment.

Q can’t prevent them from using the ransomware but he can prevent them from benefiting by changing the algorithm that generates the key which the ransomware uses to encrypt data (the ransomware and key are separate so no one can break encryption by examining the code). The key is hidden on a server somewhere only Q knows and the ransomware pings that server each time it wants to encrypt data. This way Q knows how many times and where it was used and he can undo the damage. [not a cyber security expert, just go with it ha!]

By now his friends are in over their heads. Unbeknownst to them, they managed to contact someone on the dark web who is from a subsidiary of SPECTRE (unknown at the time) to sell the exploit code. The ringleader is not happy with the offer, saying they could scam double that themselves. In a fit ego and to demonstrate how good the code is, he infects the potential buyers’ (very important criminal stuff) system and holds it to ransom. The buyer pays up, but ringleader doesn’t have the correct key because the algorithm has changed. Mini-Spectre is still locked out of ther system. Bugger! They are PISSED. Tracks Q’s friends down through the bank account (these were days before bitcoin) which was sloppily set up - they’re university punks, not criminal masterminds.

His friends now come to Q demanding for the key, he checks out the buyer and finds links to very bad! criminal activity and so refuses to provide the new key, and tries to cut ties. Desperate, his former friends sell him out to mini SPECTRE. They kidnap Q’s surviving surrogate grandparent to compel him to surrender the key. Q doesn’t know what to do. Knowing the criminal activity, his conscience can’t abide to letting them continue, so many innocent people will suffer, but on the other hand so will his grandparent. (Tramcar problem!)

Desperate he hacks MI6 to get their attention and beg for help to rescue his grandparent in return for data on mini-Spectres’ activity. M (female) agrees to help. The operation is a success, hostage rescued, mini-spectre subsidiary shut down. Q watches the rescue operation via CCTV and bodycam that he’s hacked into and sees first time a 00-agent and what they are capable of (not necessarily Bond, but maybe if the timeline fits). 

In spite of the success, M wants to know who this hacker is. Q is caught when he goes to visit his grandparent in hospital. Denying at first, but M and makes him aware of other critical infrastructure systems hit by the ransomware he designed. Being a manipulative b!tch, she detains him but leaves him access to his laptop and internet connection. Everyday he delays returning access those systems means more innocent people will suffer - people like his grandparents.

It’s Q’s moment to choose sides - he does. He opens the laptop and restores access to the systems and in doing so, incriminates himself. M is pleased, she sees he has a conscience and is willing to suffer the consequences of his actions instead of leaving others to suffer. Material she can work with. She cuts a deal with him that will pull him into the folds of MI6 and set him on his trajectory to becoming Quartermaster.


	2. Series 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this second series, we see Q’s double life and how he juggles them. One as a civilian and the other in service with MI6 - his growth his setbacks; the dramas that follow and which of the two will have to give way. 
> 
> To make Q’s backstory come to life and the events that happen to and around him seem more realistic, I’ve tried to include as much relevant details including the bureaucracy, politics and technology in MI6 (with a lot of artistic licence). The details all play a role in growing plot and telling of the narrative, I promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with previous chapter, this is meant to be a plot summary, not a full blown fic. Feel free to furnish with your own details.

**Episode 1**

We see him older now but still in university on the verge of getting his second PhD and third masters (about 28-ish). The last several years, he’s been working part time at MI6 Q-Branch. Major Boothroyd (Q senior) insists he continue his education in Chemistry and Engineering as he’s competent but not great yet in these areas. The Major is an absent minded professor type, involved but not affectionate yet provides enough structure and interesting projects to occupy Q. 

Meanwhile Q in addition to the projects Boothroyd assigns him has started gathering some of his more cyber savvy colleagues in Q and IT Branches into a loosely defined “cyber security team”. It’s mostly them poking around MI6 systems testing and patching security. Technically, administrative IT is not under the purview of Q-Branch - you wouldn’t call Q-Branch if your laptop is refusing cooperate. Q-Branch is a specialised _**Field Research and Development (Weapons & Defence) **_division of MI6. However, there is increasing overlap with IT-Branch as terrorism and counterterrorism activities move into the cyber realm. The need to use cyber offensive measures (weapons) and protect against them (defend) blurs the lines between the branches in this age. 

It is still up in the air as to which branch will eventually take over - both branches playing it like hot potato at the moment. Q has a suspicion that M wants Q-Branch to play a more involved role sooner rather than later but bureaucratic red tape and legitimate logistical and manpower concerns have yet to be addressed. 

Timothy Hayden, Head of IT- branch is territorial about letting the grease monkeys down in Q-Branch toy with his high tech touch screens. He runs his branch like a corporate entity and isn’t a great fan of the somewhat disorganised tinkering elves that surround Boothroyd like a perverse Father Christmas toyshop. Boothroyd on the other hand doesn’t want Q-branch becoming mired in a multi-year IT systems transformation project that would draw resources away from their core competencies (whose budget should it come out of? what’s the scope? whose personnel? whose accountability? legacy systems, ongoing support and patches, etc.) 

So for now, Q and his merry little bunch of misfits - who in later years will become the core group of senior Q-minions surrounding Q (opportunity to explore the other characters) carry on their project in the background. Its their standing Friday **CYBRWar!** night with IT-Branch. Their cybergames isn’t exactly sanctioned but is not prohibited either - as long as they don’t repeat the Black Friday incident where an uninformed IT boffin mistook the games as a legitimate attack and executed a hard shut down of Level 3 servers taking all email down with it…. now _that_ was a long weekend of data recovery work no one wants repeated. 

The games see them take turns playing system hacker and system defender. The score is currently an alarming 163 (success hacks) vs 57 (success repels) with both sides starting to uncomfortably acknowledge the gaping under-preparedness of their protocols. To add to the worry, a third of the successful repels are only because Q was playing lead defender. So, vigorous trash-talk and deliciously unhealthy takeaway food aside, it does serve a critical purpose - one that they won’t realise until a few years later. 

Meanwhile, Q’s personal life starts to get interesting. He’s fallen for a university tutor in the Arts & History faculty (lets call him Adam) who couldn’t be more different than Q. Adam is flawlessly chisel cheeked and athletic - but internally soft, emotional and romantic. Juxtaposed to Qs fragile physicality but rapier wit and iron will. Q suspects that Adam sees in him a scrappy lost puppy in need of a good home and boundaries to focus his genius - but doesn’t mind ...initially. His first serious romance and sexual experience ensues. [insert desired smut here. LOL]. 

However even as his personal life blossoms, his life in Q-Branch begins to unravel. A spate of failed field operations culminating in the death of a field agent instigates an investigation. It is determined that equipment failure is a cause in all these cases. Major Boothroyd as branch head is ultimately accountable - he is censured and put on administrative leave, which is crushing to the old man who has spent his life in Q-branch. As he spends an emotional evening packing his office and reminiscing on a life spent in the bowels of MI6 creating countless gadgets for his countrymen, the stress and shame takes its toll. He suffers a stroke, and collapses. It’s Q who finds him unresponsive next to the old DB5 that Boothroyld wanted to see for the last time when Q goes to collect the old man for the “farewell” drinks Q-Branch was throwing to honour their old mentor. 

Boothroyd survives but suffers long term damage to his right side, making a potential return to Q-Branch impossible. It is both an emotional and technical blow to the department which is now facing ever increasing scrutiny. There is even talk of contracting all R&D work to external defence companies and doing away with Q-Branch all together…….

———

**Episode 2**

Opens with a harried senior R trying to keep a demoralised Q-Branch together. The Major was a pillar of Q-Branch for decades and many feel a strong loyalty towards the old man, Q included. R orders a review of the few examples of returned equipment to find the root cause of failures. The engineers in Q-Branch get to it - they narrow it down to a few components but the records show no issue with them prior to assembly. Without more evidence, the investigation stalls. 

Out of curiosity, Q pokes around the inventory system, trying to find a pattern. When he checks the data logs, he finds discrepancies that suggest data tampering. The component serial numbers have been moved around so that in some cases untested components or those that have failed testing are getting released to be used in the assembly of field equipment. 

It is a small hack (if you can even call it that), surgically precise and inconspicuous enough that it flies under the radar. In an era of brazen top down system wide pwn-ing, no one would have given priority to securing these low level administrative systems since they don’t hold any classified information. But once compromised causes a ripple that cascades upwards. Q gets a knot in his stomach, how many more of these time bombs are hidden in the system? 

Just then a field report for 007’s latest mission (Casino Royale) comes through. Q-branch is red flagged because the medical defibrillator they built for 007’s kit failed to discharge when expected - nearly costing the agent his life. It was only an act of serendipity that the liaison from HM Treasury Dept was there to assist. Q designed that defibrillator; he’d personally drawn up the schematics and the electronic controller as well as the specifications, he’d put in failsafes and redundancies knowing the critical use case of the equipment. This point he’s doesn’t know 007 personally, he knows of his reputation as a rebel and M’s experimental wild child. People say that about Q as well, that he’s M’s bet - for what exactly, only she knows. Q thinks otherwise, viewing MI6 as his gilded cage - one that M imposed and one that he now willingly submits to; to keep his egomaniacal tendencies in check (think pyjamas + tea + laptop = destruction). He resented it when he first arrived, but has since matured and loves the sense of purpose and outlet it provides. 

He plans to gather more evidence about the data tampering, before presenting it to R. But the next day he gets an urgent call from R telling him to come to HQ, they’ve sent a car for him. He has to cancel a long-awaited planned weekend with Adam who doesn’t quite get what’s so important that Q can’t put it off. To everyone else, Q is still a PhD student with no more pressing concerns than finishing his doctoral dissertations - a _lazy_ student at that. 

This is where we see the cracks in Q’s civilian persona. Brilliant as he is, he barely makes his tutoring requirements and spends more time in Q-Branch than in the university labs. When he does show, he’s ill prepared and sporting increasingly implausible excuses. His PhD project is half baked and boring because the more interesting topics he’s working on is for MI6 and classified. Yet his technical genius means he still manages to run verbal rings around his peers and professors and make a general nuisance of himself (he can’t resist pulling the lion’s tail at times simply to see what would happen. We see traces of this side of him when he meets 007 later in Skyfall). He has all the ego and sensitivity (lack of) of a Sheldon-esque character but without a developmental disorder to explain his behaviour and endear him to those around him. MI6 funds his tuition so he is not wanting of anything. _In summary for all appearances, he’s a privileged little shit too smart for his own good, cruising through academia without ambition or drive to make something of himself._

Adam is understandably upset. Q is annoyed at Adam’s concern and increasing attempts to ‘guide’ and ‘channel’ him. He knows he’s been more erratic and impatient lately but can’t explain to Adam why. He leaves Adam at the university entrance and gets into the unmarked black car with a promise to talk later. 

When he gets to HQ he finds out that he’s facing the fallout from 007s’ field report. He’s now caught up in the internal inquiry dragnet. The inquiry board wants to issue a recall of ALL specialised field equipment designed by Q-branch. It would be a massive undertaking as it’s deployed all over the globe and across agencies (CIA, NATO, EEAS, etc that contracted work with Q-Branch) and in many cases with agents under deep cover. Not to mention the embarrassment and damage to MI6 reputation (they don’t know it yet, but this is the start of a campaign to undermine M; this is also my take on why Q-Branch makes no appearance in Casino Royal and Quantum). They also want to rescind Q’s contract and security clearance to cover their liabilities - using Q as a scapegoat. 

R thinks it’s an over reaction; granted there are serious issues here but give Q-Branch time to investigate before they make a decision. The board is unconvinced; they don’t have time for a protracted review, they have already lost one of their filed agents, now nearly losing a 00-agent. If something similar happens to one of the other allied agencies because of Q-Branch tech, the reputational embarrassment will be severe. The situation is at an impasse. 

With his career on the line, Q speaks up for the first time in the inquiry, surprising everyone into silence. In the last half hour, he’s been talked _to_ as if his presence was irrelevant; a lowly Q-Branch boffin, disposable and expendable in the grand scheme of political machinations. He details his findings regarding the data tampering in the inventory management system. If he can trace which of the components are affected, he could narrow the list of equipment that potentially needs to be recalled. He asks for 3 days.

R an old school mechanical engineer, is out of his depth on this one as it’s a IT systems issue. IT-Branch Head, Hayden is uncooperative. He thinks Q is trying to deflect blame to his branch. Hayden objects, accusing Q of unauthorised hacking into IT Dept. Q admits to unauthorised access but quips back that its hardly hacking when all he had to do was jiggle the the handle to find the door unlocked. Terrorists are not going to pass up an exploit just because we asked nicely. That shuts everyone up. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees M look somewhat pleased but isn’t sure. 

The board acquiesces to the 3 days….the clock starts ticking.

———

**Episode 3**

Clock is ticking! ⏳

Q enlists his unofficial minions - interrupting cyberwar night. Together they form a plan to gather evidence. They confirm the findings when they retest some of the components in storage that were marked as released and find that an unusually high percentage do not meet specification. They trace the manufacturers but they have nothing in common on the surface other than being long time component suppliers to MI6. Q wants to dig further by hacking the company databases but is stopped by R who warns him that he doesn’t have M’s approval. The board only approved an internal investigation, hacking a private company without authorisation would put his career at further risk than it already is. 

By morning of the third day the team have what they need regarding the inventory system hack and the extent of it. Evidence suggests someone familiar with their procedures and systems. The hack itself not incredibly sophisticated by anyone’s standards - it didn’t need to be, the low level system was virtually unprotected. It’s effectiveness lay in how and where it was used tactically, break the weakest link and the whole system is undermined. 

They manage to determine the extent of the breach. About FOUR months. The good news is that it means limited recall of field equipment. Bad news is, the hacker has had four months of skipping around in their system unchallenged. It’s like having an intruder come and go from your house rummaging through your drawers and cupboards for months without you knowing. God knows what they might have left behind - it makes Q feel nauseous and violated. However an idea begins to form in his head....

 _Timeline check:_ Note the timeline is now somewhere at the end of Casino Royale, 007 has just infamously resigned with a one sentence email to M.

Q presents all their findings to M and the board. M sends teams to the manufacturers under the guise of a routine audit so as to not tip them off. In one of them, they find a shipment of components intended for MI6. Documents indicate that they passed inspection, but when they are tested, it’s found that they are mostly duds. The CEO denies any wrong doing and cooperates with the investigation, handing over data and recordings. Q runs the employee list through MI6 database and facial recognition, the results come back that the COO has been seen in the company of a certain Mr White (Quantum). With M’s permission, he traces the COO’s financial activities and hacks his secure accounts. He’s been receiving large sums over the course of a few months coinciding with the shipments to MI6. 

That’s one piece of the puzzle slotting into place; M now has more evidence on Mr White than a phone number Vesper left for 007 - and that allows her to sanction 007 to retrieve him for questioning. 

Meanwhile, Q acts on the idea he had and plans a trap for the hacker. The Q-Minions scramble to move all remaining systems regardless of security level behind secure firewalls; the process isn’t neat or clean and it breaks more than a few WIFI enabled printers and IOT devices, including the fancy video conferencing setup M has in her home; but its a small price to pay to remove easy entry points. Hayden can chew him out for causing the Great Print-pocalyspe later. Now for the trap - a mirror system is left in place, fed with filtered data from the master system now behind the firewall, this is so that it appears that they are still in use. _**Then they wait…..**_

Meantime, it’s been over a week since Q had last seen Adam. A quiet moment lets Q slip away to deal with his civilian life that he’s put on hold. He calls Adam who is relieved that Q is OK. Adam is in tears when he tells Q that he realises that he doesn’t even know where Q’s flat is and has gone to the extent of calling hospitals in the city to check if something has happened to him - he was close to reporting Q as a missing person to the Met. Q assures Adam the best he can and they agree to talk in a few days when whatever emergency he’s dealing with is over. 

They end the call with Q feeling like a right piece of work. He hadn’t meant to make Adam worry so much, he had meant to check in earlier, text even. So why hadn’t he? Q has a uncomfortable realisation - as wonderfully stable and predictable as Adam is, he lacks the excitement and intellectual stimulation that MI6 provides. His life in MI6 draws him like a moth to a flame, even if it might burn him one day. 

At Q-Branch, the shipment arrives and is put through the normal procedures of logging in new inventory and testing. Not 24 hours later the hacker strikes. This time Q and his minions are ready. As the hacker’s code rips through the mirror system, it changes data and pings its trojans within the system for updates. Q’s team record all the activity but leave the hacker unchallenged. 

Instead they chase hacker on two fronts even as the signal is bounced all over the world - the source of the hack as well as the destination of the data packets its downloaded from the mirror system to see if they overlap, hoping to find a point of origin. Both trails end up somewhere between IndoChina-Hong Kong. The source of the hack is harder to pinpoint but the data packets are ending up somewhere in Laos. It’s a poorly secured telecommunications server belonging to Lao Telecom. It’s likely the owners don’t even know they are being used as a data cache to be retrieved later by the hacker. 

_Time to pull the plug_. But before that Q acts on a hunch, he takes over the system locking everyone else out and executes a data grab first - pulling data off the server in Laos and dumping it into a proxy of his own in Philippines. That’s when he realises that it’s not a passive hack using automated code. There is someone on the other end _actively_ watching... 

Now alerted to Q’s presence, the hacker fights back. Simultaneously trying to regain control of the server and chasing Q’s data grab. After several failed attempts by the hacker to regain control and protect the data - whoever they were decides to cut their losses. The hacker sends a DDOS attack to the server, overwhelming it and taking with it telecom service in the surrounding region - Q looses connection. Not the most elegant counter by the hacker, but effective. No matter, Q had already managed to grab a sizeable chunk which he’ll examine later. The other trail also ends abruptly.

Q isn’t innocent either, he’s had to initiate lockout protocols to protect the data he’s dumped in the Philippines, so even the owners of the server in the Department of Transportation can’t get in temporarily. If the traffic lights in Pasig city goes on the blink for half a day and causes mayhem…. well Q better hide their tracks _._

 ** _It’s OVER._** There is _dead silence_ in Q-Branch, jarring after close to an hour of frantic activity. It’s as if no one dares to breathe. Q wills himself to calm, his fingers coming up to cover his eyes under his glasses, he finally lets out a long breath he had not realised he was holding. With that, it’s as if a tightly wound string had been cut. His minions take their cue and break into their own sighs and groans of relief. A minion (future R) is retching into the nearest bin, that was how much anxiety and stress was in the room. 

All the adrenaline and tension of the last few weeks bleeds out of him and Q feels like he can’t hold himself upright any longer. He braces himself on his work station and slowly slips onto the floor back against the workstation desk. The reality of the situation hits him then - today, halfway around the world, two servers in two unsuspecting nations just became the latest cyberwar battleground and victims of collateral mayhem. Q is treading on eggshells - an attack like this even if indirect could be construed as an act of war on sovereign nations if they ever found out (yes, Q kinda, technically, maybe caused England to declare war on two nations today).

He doesn’t know it yet, but this was their first of a series of live encounters with Raoul Silva. Q hadn’t planned on Silva being on the other end, so the timing of their counter offensive is a huge clue to Silva as to who they were. 

**_*A throat clearing*_** M and Tanner make themselves known. They were alerted when the hack started but M chose to stand back and let Q and his team handle it while she watched. Q stiffly picks himself off the floor to face M and Tanner. His minions are also rousing from their various states of collapse - future R is still clutching the bin. 

Q confirms they got what they needed. Q and his minions can now use the records of the hacker’s activity in the mirror system and compare it with the unaltered data in the master system and locate the areas that were tampered with as well as where the trojans were located. Like comparing two photographs to see what was changed. This will help them weed out the trojans and patch the system quickly, while also allowing them to study the hackers patterns and choice of tools - both as a ‘fingerprint’ identification as well as adapting MI6’s own cybersecurity response.

As for the data Q stole from the server in Laos, by the time the dust settles in Quantum of Solace, they will find that it was not just MI6s’ inventory system that was targeted. Mr White working for Quantum had been paying off employees in a number of defence companies to ship dud components and equipment to law enforcement and military around the world, while Silva uses the same hack to launder the records of faulty equipment. Once the reputation and faith in these companies have been shaken, Quantum would sweep in with their own and monopolise the industry; controlling the supply of a multi-billion dollar market and aligning it to their own agenda. 

Weeks later, 007 has removed Dominic Greene and exposed his plans in Bolivia, but its Q’s investigation and stolen data that allows MI6 to get ahead of Quantum’s plan globally. Unknown to him, **Q has already thwarted SPECTRE twice before he’s even in full-time service of MI6** (once in the pilot and now). We can imagine the interest that generates within the organisation to find out who is behind it. 

(This is also my take on the personalised _“Not such a clever boy”_ message in Skyfall. Silva _knew_ who Q was long before 007 brought him in. _And if Silva knew who Q was, so will SPECTRE. Delicious future setup! *rubs hands*_ )

Q meets Adam for their ‘talk’ in a local animal shelter Adam is volunteering at. Adam is much calmer, resigned even. As they feed and play with the animals, he tells Q that he’s given a lot of thought to their relationship and realises that he barely knows Q. Q has never invited him over to his place, or introduced him to his family or friends, doesn’t know what he does outside of university other than the excuses he gives. Who _is_ he?? Q listens without saying anything. 

Q leans against against a wall of cages and watches Adam thoughtfully as he goes about his work around the shelter. Adam who is kind, thoughtful, who likes long walks and conversations, who picks up strays and nurses them back to health. Adam with his strong nurturing instinct and perfect abs, who gives everything to help those in need. Q commits possible acts of war on behalf of a nation, heedless to the damage it causes. The end justify the means and all that... a life that demands secrecy and subterfuge. Adam could never understand that. It is no one’s fault. They don’t deserve one another. They break-up amicably. 

Q helps Adam finish his shift at the shelter. As he tries to put the big adult orange tabby he’s been petting all afternoon back in its cage, the moggie refuses to let go. It meows grumpily and clings to his jumper like velcro. He’s a heavy one, rounded head with impressive jowls, ears notched in a few places and some superficial facial scarring. A street brawler before he was brought in for sure, but now a needy cuddle monster shredding Q’s jumper. Perhaps he’s feeling a little melancholy and a bit lonely now that the breakup is formal, he finds the low pitched yowling heartbreaking. 

He finally gets the cat to let go by sacrificing his jumper, leaving the clothing inside the cage for it to snuggle in. Q goes to leave, the cat’s continued piteous calls tugs at his heartstrings. He makes it as far as the door before turning back and grabbing the cat’s papers hanging by the cage. Guess he’s not going home alone after all. 

The last scene of the finale is M in her office. She’s reviewing all the gathered intel and drawing connections. She recognises that she’s being herded into a corner. Unknown entity (Silva) trying to pull the rug out from under her by undermining MI6 through Q-Branch, while Quantum attacks directly from the inside with an assassination attempt by her bodyguard. **This is only the start.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the idea of Q being more than just a future quartermaster doling out equipment and supplies. He’s also an ‘agent’ in his own right - it makes the conversation when he meets 007 in Skyfall hold more weight. It’s not just hubris, he’s proven himself.


End file.
